Reappropriate’s Top 5 for #GivingTuesday 2017 (and a listing of AAPI non-profits)

One of my most popular posts each year is my Giving Tuesday post, which commemorates a national day to reject the crass consumerism of Black Friday and Cyber Monday by promoting charitable donations. Organized by #NotOneDime, Giving Tuesday encourages each of us to make small (or large) gifts to any non-profit organizations.

Giving Tuesday typically publishes a database of non-profit organizations that will receive your donations, but I’ve found in the past that AAPI were woefully underrepresented. So, for the last several years, I have published my own (long, but not comprehensive) list of quality AAPI non-profit organizations to support for Giving Tuesday (2014 | 2015 | 2016).

After the jump you’ll find 2017’s updated list of great AAPI-focused non-profits — all of which could use a donation from you this year.

Before we get to the full list, here are my personal top five picks for 2017. Of course, every organization in the larger list deserves our charitable support, but, these are the groups I’ve decided to give a few if my dollars to for Giving Tuesday 2017.

Reappropriate’s 2017 Giving Tuesday Top 5:

APALA: I have been incredibly impressed with APALA’s work this year. Not only has APALA been on the frontlines of the fight to protected undocumented immigrants and preserve DACA, but APALA has also led and been involved in numerous other progressive causes, campaigns and community-organizing events. This is all, of course, on top of APALA’s work to support Asian American labor rights.

NAKASEC: NAKASEC is one of several organizations this year to put themselves front-and-center in the fight to preserve DACA, and that work has definitely not gone unnoticed. This year, NAKASEC organized #DreamAction17, a nearly month-long vigil and community action in front of the White House for undocumented immigrants. More recently, NAKASEC was part of a coalition of AAPI groups that staged a protest in front of Speaker Paul Ryan’s office demanding the passage of a clean DREAM Act. 19 Asian American activists were arrested in that action. I am supporting NAKASEC (and APALA) for placing themselves courageously at the frontlines of the fight for immigrant rights.

APIAVote: This year has proven how truly terrifying a Trump presidency is for communities of colour, and thus how essential it is that we mobilize our voters to be involved in the electoral process. APIAVote is a national non-partisan organization whose mission it is to build and strengthen the AAPI electorate. We need to invest in our community’s voters now if we hope to be heard at the polls in 2018 and 2020.

Kollaboration: Recently, I had the opportunity to participate in Kollboration’s Empower conference as a panelist, and I was particularly impressed by not only the fantastic quality of the event – a credit to the numerous young organizers who made the event possible – but also the sharp minds of the young activists who gave their weekend to engaging with the community. Kollaboration consistently places itself at the cutting edge of Asian American youth organizing, and for that I think we owe them our support.

Tuesday Night Project: Tuesday Night Project organizes Tuesday Night Cafe, the longest-running (and free) Asian American open mic event. TNC entered my life at an important moment: I had just moved to the West Coast and I was making a lot of difficult adjustments with the transition. I was also generally burnt out, and I was questioning the value of the work that I do with the Asian American community. I was angry — at the state of national politics and at the rising contentiousness of Asian American political discourse. I was in a rough place; TNC helped me to heal. Under a balmy Southern California night sky, I listened to music and poetry that was viscerally who-we-are, and felt immediately connected to our collective Asian American activist family. TNC reminded me of the beauty of our community, and the humble power in a unified vision. TNC reminded me that activism is art, and that art is activism; and that this is why we do what we do. Above all, TNC reminded me that sometimes the most radical act that we can engage in during these troubled times is to speak our personal truths and to just be who we are – openly and unapologetically. For those and for many other reasons, I am enthusiastically supporting Tuesday Night Project this year for Giving Tuesday, and I hope that if you are in the LA area, you will take time to check out this incredible local series when they resume their events next spring.

I encourage you to make a Giving Tuesday donation this year to one or more of the listed organizations in this post. You can either join me in giving to one of my 2017 Giving Tuesday Top 5 (above), or you can pick any of your favourites from the larger list of equally deserving organizations (after the jump)!

Don’t see your favourite organization on the list? Please leave a comment to have it added!

Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAAJ): dedicated to advancing APIA civil rights; note that there are six separate chapters of AAAJ that each do amazing work on their own. Donations should be directed to specific chapters.

Please note that inclusion of an organization on this list does not imply endorsement by Reappropriate of all the group’s activities or positions, nor does it imply endorsement by the non-profit of any writing — generally or specifically — on Reappropriate. I encourage you to do additional research on any non-profit that appears on this list before making a contribution.Thank you for considering a donation in support of this year’s Giving Tuesday!